Computer systems include many onboard systems that consume significant amounts of power. In some situations, a user may be using the computer system for tasks that do not require the use of each onboard system or that do not require each onboard system to function at full power. In this situation, the computer system may want to reduce power to specific onboard systems by sending a signal from a processor to a voltage regulator associated with the specific onboard systems.
In conventional computer systems, each voltage regulator must be configured to communicate with the processor at a set frequency that is pre-determined by the processor. For example, if the processor is configured to communicate at a frequency of 25 MHz, then each voltage regulator must communicate at 25 MHz. If a voltage regulator is not capable of communicating at the processor's pre-determined frequency, then the voltage regulator will not be able to communicate with the onboard processor.